Star Trek: Romulan War
by Newfrontiers01
Summary: Two captains from opposite sides have to work together.


**STAR TREK**

**Romulan War**

**Short story:**

Fire dancing

_Captain Mathew Hall watched as the scaly Sulibans ravaged the helpless city. Flames and smoke wafted from the slanted buildings of the Montana city Bozeman. Hundreds of people screamed as energy blasts discharged overhead. Glass shattered to the ground. Droplets of dark red blood flung shot through the air like bullets. An ear-spilling crack rang overhead. Hall covered his ears with his dirt-covered hands. His blood covered hands. He lowered his hands and looked at them. They were dripping in blood. He looked at his chest. There lay a hole, spilling gallons of blood on the earthy ground. Hall fell into a wet puddle, covering his face in the red liquid. A shiver went down his back. He looked up, and there stood a Xindi soldier. The reptilian creatures face lit up, and flames rushed at the helpless Starfleet officer…_

Hall sat up in bed quickly. He let out a yell. He felt his forehead. It was sopping in sweat. Only sweat. He felt where the wound was. No blood. No wound. He looked at his hands. They were clean. _It was just a dream, Mathew. No need to panic._ But Hall had never been more frightened in his life. He shivered immensely. Not to mention the night before environmental controls broke and he had to sleep in a freezing quarters. He started taking deep breaths. It was all he could do from panicking. As his fear died down, he sighed heavily. His stomach still felt like it was doing back flips. He quickly ran to the bathroom and took a huge glug of water. After he was finished, he looked in the mirror. His face was red, his scar a violet purple. His eyes were bloodshot. His hair looked like a mess. He felt like he didn't know the person in the mirror. Like it was someone else entirely. That the man three years ago who walked onto the _Montana_ was an echo of who Hall used to be. That it was just a shadow or memory, but the man standing in front of the mirror was a soldier or even a killer. A Human being who had become used to killing. The Mathew Joseph Hall three years ago was an explorer or a peacemaker. He'd become what he tried to stop. And he knew it was his entire fault. That he had started the war in the first place. It was accident though. Both sides didn't know the others intent. So when the fleet came barreling in front, they had to defend themselves. By Hall's order. It all weighed heavily on his mind. Which didn't help the fact that the next second Hall upchucked the water all over his bathroom floor. He felt his forehead. He didn't have a fever. He quickly pulled his uniform jacket on and headed for the door. He looked around his quarters first. It was a mess. But he didn't remember it that way last night. Maybe he remembered wrong. Hall departed his quarters.

Commander T'Leya Petrov sat in the ships café. She was sipping coffee while reading a padd. It was a casualty manifest, something she would usually read. It was getting tiresome for her to read it every Friday. She'd already lost so many close friends. She didn't understand why she must endure more then her fair share. Petrov took another sip of coffee. It tasted bitter. Even so, she persisted with it. She believed it would keep her up better. She shivered from the shrill taste. Now it was cold. She'd always hated cold coffee. Petrov got up, took the cup to the drink dispenser ordering another coffee. She then returned to her seat with the warm beverage and returned to the padd. All the names became meaningless having read so many. The war was costing Earth so much. Now Starfleet was just a handful of starships. They'd even resorted to using the first warp capable ship, the _Phoenix_, for combat. It was a shame, such a historic ship being used for warfare. She hoped maybe it would survive the war. Captain Hall walked into the, ordering a coffee. He sat at the table across from Petrov. She set down her padd, looking up at him.

"You look terrible," she pointed out. He looked up at her with bloodshot eyes. His jacket looked ruffled.

"I had a long night," he responded. He took a glug of coffe and looked like he was about to puke.

"No, you really do," she announced. He turned to cough. He then turned back.

"I'm fine," he spat back.

"Maybe you should see the Doc," she suggested. He frowned.

"When did you become such a nurse," he spewed.

"Well everything that's happened to you over the past with losing you wife and all…"

"This has nothing to do with Alyssa! I had a long night, all right! Now just leave me alone!" Hall stormed out. Petrov put her head on the table. _What's gotten into?_ She thought.

Xilleck entered the drafty corridor. Xilleck never liked drafts. It irritated his scaly skin. Xilleck was a Suliban, an engineered one. The engineered types were designed for combat. He, of course, was a soldier. Xilleck had been requested to join several more of his kind at a secretive meeting. He just now was arriving at the meeting place. Xilleck entered a small room with a single table with one other Suliban and surprisingly two Xindi. Xilleck had never met a Xindi and wondered why there was one at the meeting now. The Suliban motioned for Xilleck to sit.

"Mr. Xilleck, I realize you probably are asking why you were called here." Xilleck nodded in response. He examined the trio across from. One of the Xindi spoke up.

"Have you heard of the planet killer our race was able to concoct four years ago?" Xilleck nodded again.

"Well, we have a duplicate of it, and we're going to launch against Earth once again. Without them, Romulus will be easy pickings. We're to rendezvous in the Extrarius expanse."

Xilleck's mouth opened into a wide grin.

Captain Hall sat motionless on the cold biobed. All he could do was look up at the bare ceiling of the infirmary. He felt like a corpse inside a coffin. But no lights blinked above or any other thing that could possibly distracted the Captain. He was just waiting there for the doctor to inform him or assure him or even give him the bad news. But no. No affirming or any other of the kind. His mind was silent. He couldn't think of anything else. That was why he was scared when he couldn't move his arms. Or legs, or anything else. It wasn't like restraints, it was really like he was unable to move at all. Like his mind couldn't tell his body what to do. Suddenly, a figure appeared next Hall. He spoke to Hall. "I'm Lozad. If you are receiving this message, then I'm dead. Another has been chosen for this message. I'm a time traveler from the future. I've given this message intending to prevent a disaster. Twenty hours from now, a replica of the Xindi planet killer will destroy Earth, then go after the Romulan Empire. It will affect the entire timeline. You must prevent them from doing this. You shall rendezvous with the other chosen bearer in the Extrarius expanse. You will wake up once this message ends." Before Hall could respond, the figure disappeared. All of a sudden, hall felt heavy and restrained. His body felt like it would fall through the floor. He felt like gravity was squashing his body to the floor.

Doctor Romano hit the device once again to wake Hall out of his coma. It didn't work. He stayed in the stone cold coma. "Come on!" she shouted while affecting another jolt of electricity. This time Hall sat up straight in bed. He looked to Romano then dashed out the door.

Captain Hall burst onto the bridge. He dashed to Lieutenant Rand, the helmsmen. "Lieutenant set a course to the Extrarius expanse, maximum warp, engage on my order,"

"Aye, sir," Rand responded, working his instruments. Hall turned to Lieutenant Riley, the communications officer. "Lieutenant, tell the fleet to set a course towards the Extrarius expanse, maximum warp, and engage as soon as we do." Hall turned to the command chair and sat. He looked at the forward screen.

"Done, Sir," Riley responded.

"Engage," Hall ordered. The fleet warped away into the distance.

Commander Surod raced down the corridor. He had just received a message about the Xindi planet killer and the Sulibans. It had sounded desperate. Surod never stopped to ponder if maybe this was a ruse to get his fleet out in the open. Often times Surod didn't stop to think about anything. He was the sort of look-before-you-leap kind of guy. But that quality wasn't bad for a Romulan soldier. It was bad for the commander of a fleet. Before the war started, he wasn't like that, but after fighting so much, he stopped thinking and started doing. He needed to work on that. Ashe entered the lift he shouted out his destination. Shortly, the lift door opened into the command center of the warbird _Droxen_. His XO, Donatra approached him. 

"Donatra," he ordered, "Set a course towards Extrarius expanse, maximum warp."

Hall watched the viewscreen tirelessly. No other ship that possibly hinted as the other 'bearer'. Not one signature. His eyes were tired from looking. Usually he enjoyed captaining the sleek _Montana_, feeling her every rumble and quake, holding the decisions of her movements. But now, he was just plain and simply bored of waiting. He was never a waiting person. He could never wait in line or wait for his birthday. He had lots of times tried to speed things up. Hall looked down at his mini-console attached to his chair. It read a spark of energy. He looked up excitedly. He turned to Petrov.

"Are you reading…"

"Yeah, it must be a fleet with that amount of…"

"I hate to interrupt," Ackerman announced, "but there's a Romulan fleet decloaking off our port bow. Should I…" hall got up and moved towards Riley.

"Lieutenant…" before Hall could finish, the hailing frequency opened.

"Well well Hall, looks like you're the other 'bearer'." Hall sighed heavily. He looked to Petrov; she only kept her mouth shut.

"Yes Surod, I am. But will this take you convincing?" Hall responded. Surod took no time to respond.

"No, but on two conditions: One, we return to war as soon as this crisis is over and two, I won't salute you." Hall grinned he then remembered that Surod was waiting for an answer. "Oh, yeah I'm fine with that." He had no choice but to bargain, even if he wanted the war to end. "Good," came Surod, "Because I'm detecting a fleet of Xindi and Suliban ships heading our way." Hall returned to his seat.

"Red alert! All hands to battlestations!"

Xilleck watched his screen as a handful of Earth ships approached. He knew exactly what the Humans were trying. They would attack the fleet head-on, and the Romulans would decloak around the planet killer and destroy it. It was a clever plan, but a foolish one. He would alert the others and the Humans and Romulans would fail.

The _Montana_ sped through the mixture of Xindi-Reptilian/Insectoid ships and Suliban ships, firing at any attainable target. The _Columbus _trailed right behind them. An Insectoid ship collided with a random NX class, turning both ships to a cloud of space debris. Meanwhile, the fleet of Romulan warbird decloaked next to the planet killer, to be bombarded by Insectoids.

"Captain, the Romulans are being ambushed. They need help!" Hall stood and watched the screen overlaid by battle. "Mr. Rand, tell five ten other ships to follow us to the planet killer." The Starfleet ships glided through the debris, explosions and cascade of ships. They reached the planet killer. Their weapons seemed useless on it. They were having no effect. They were losing.

Surod watched as the Xindi ships overtook them. He watched as blast after blast hit the hull of the _Droxen_. He and his ship would be finished. He watched helplessly.

Hall turned to his security chief. "Report!" Ackerman looked at his boards.

"No effect. There is no way we'll be able to destroy the planet killer." Hall turns back the screen. "Then there is only one option: we ram It." everyone on the bridge gave each other glances. They didn't want to die, and Hall knew that. But what are 47 lives to billions. "This crew has served well, but our time has come. Mr.…Mr. Rand set a collision course. Riley, tell everyone else to get the heck out of here. The explosion will destroy every ship in the vicinity."

"Aye, si…sir." Hall turned back to Rand.

"Lieutenant…engage." The ship moved forward with a jolt and it was racing forward until they saw a crack in the planet killer. It got bigger until they realized it was self-destructing. In a flash, the _Montana_ raced off as every Xindi and Suliban ship was destroyed.

"Earth is in great debt to you, Captain," Admiral Garrigon announced over the monitor. Hall shook his head no. "Not at all. The device self-destructed. We had nothing to do with. Well, I have to get back to running the fleet. Hall out." The screen went blank. Hall trounced out of the small room and headed towards the transporter padd where Commander Surod stood. "Well, I hope I wasn't a distraction Captain." Surod announced. "Not at all commander," Hall responded.

"Then no hard feelings?" Surod pulled out a pistol and fired. He then grabbed the Captain and spoke into his communicator. The two faded into the transporter beam, and the _Droxen_ sped off before the _Montana_ crew realized what happened.

The joyful end.


End file.
